Mindfulness, The Frame and The Power of Art for Wellbeing — Westray Psychotherapy and Counselling

In this blog, I will pull together several theories used in Art Psychotherapy to discuss a way in which art making can be a powerful method to contribute to wellbeing. I will end with an exercise so the reader can put these theories into practice. I will briefly touch on the concepts of the frame, mindfulness, containment and embodied art practice.

‘ Focus on what you can control’ is the advice commonly given in times of crisis. When we are in situations where so much is out of our control, we can feel helpless and overwhelmed. Feeling helpless and overwhelmed can lead us to dissociative mental states. This dissociation can present differently; it can be a sense of preoccupation, addiction, a feeling of numbness, depression, disconnection and hopelessness. Overwhelming and anxious thoughts are uncontained thoughts (they are also very natural given the current climate). Focusing on what you can control aids in self-containment and thus management of anxiety.

The Frame and Self Containment

Focussing on what we can control requires that we use frames. In art, the frame surrounds the picture containing it. If the artist paints outside of the frame it will be immediately noticeable to the viewer. Psychotherapist and author Anne Gray states that ‘it is interesting that most artists prefer to have their work contained and when it is not the effect is disturbing,
the eye concentrates more on what is not being contained than what is’.

In times of crisis, then, it becomes important to frame time and space. Framing time might mean planning out the day, making a timetable of activity and routines. Framing space might mean using different areas of your living space for different activities at various times of the day. For example, a work space, a space to relax, an exercise space, an eating space. Suddenly, you are creating spaces within spaces. The framing of time and space thus aids self-containment. From another perspective, this can be described as ‘chunking down’. If we look at the whole of experience, it can be overwhelming and chaotic, if we chunk it down into pieces, suddenly we can digest and manage it. The art process can help us chunk down and therefore digest difficult feelings and experience.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness can be defined by it’s opposite; over identification. There is a continuum between the two concepts. If we are feeling panic, then we are over identified with a thought, belief or idea. If we are feeling worried, then we are somewhat identified with a thought, belief or idea. If we are able to observe our worry, as well as observe other feelings, then we are in mindfulness. You could go further and say that mindfulness is observing that we are observing.

Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre states that, ‘Mindfulness allows us to become more aware of the stream of thoughts and feelings that we experience, and to
see how we can become entangled in that stream in ways that are not helpful’. He further states that ‘It's about allowing ourselves to see the present moment clearly. When we do that, it can positively change the way we see ourselves and our lives.’ Art making can help us to observe what is happening internally without becoming overly identified with it.

How Art Helps

My own exploration of grief, loss and the holding potential of the therapeutic frame.

Emotional engagement in the art process draws together the concepts of the frame, self-containment and mindfulness. As we engage with image making we engage and experience the frame. The frame is the time and space of the art process (the time we allow
ourselves to create and the paper or canvas that we create on). As we observe what we create, we might start to understand what is occurring internally with more clarity. Art Psychotherapist and author Marianne Liebmann sums this process up by stating that, ‘sometimes I don’t know what I’m thinking until I make a piece of art’.

Art making for wellbeing involves portraying your emotional experience on paper. This is not about being good at art, it’s simply about play. All we need to do is notice our emotions, choose a colour and freely draw, scribble, splash paint etc.

Influential Jungian Art Psychotherapist, Joy Schaverien distinguishes a continuum of art making between embodied art and diagrammatic art.
Diagrammatic art is descriptive, it is the accurate depiction of a specific preconceived image. Embodied art is playful mark making with very little thought applied. With embodied art making, the artist may have just begun by playing with art materials and permitting them to lead. The artist thus develops the image as they go along with little notion of where it is going.

An embodied image carrying a strong emotional affect.

Embodied art making, therefore, can help bring deeper, unconscious issues to the surface which can then be reflected on and processed consciously.

In summary, producing and then reflecting on an image can help one to know what they are thinking or feeling, it can bring a deep insight to a situation. This chunks down and makes experience more contained so therefore more palatable. The art making process as a whole develops mindfulness.

From mindfulness there is choice and therefore, control. The feelings of overwhelm can then become more manageable.

An Exercise To Bring it All Together.

This is a very simple exercise that anybody can do. It’s not about making good art, it’s simply about just playfully making marks on paper. You can do this alone or with others.

You will need either some crayons, oil pastels,
coloured pencils, felt tip pens – anything really, so long as it makes a mark.
You will need a clean sheet of paper, any size will do, bigger can be better – minimum size A4. This will be your physical frame. Also, get yourself a notebook or something to write on.
Put aside an hour of time and set a timer so you are absolutely clear on the time boundary. This is your time frame. Know that this hour is your
space, your time to simply be with what is.
For 10 minutes, sit, close your eyes, notice your breathing and observe your bodily sensations – any aches or pains or pleasant feelings? Observe any emotions – can you tell where they are in your body?
Observe your thoughts – what are they about?
Now for for the next 30 minutes make art. Consider embodied art making, you don’t need to depict anything, you will just play with the materials. First, ask yourself what feeling is most apparent, is it anxiety? Is it physical? Is it difficult to label? Where is this feeling in your body? Now, from that feeling choose any colour that grabs your attention. Without thinking, just mark the paper in any way – straight or curvy lines, shapes – whatever, it doesn’t matter. Develop what you have made in anyway. In the page you are free, this is your space to do anything, beyond judgment. Just go for it, there is no right or wrong here, no rules, you are free.
For the last 20 minutes, I want you to reflect on what you have made and write answers to the following questions in your note book:
a)     What do you notice about your image?
b)     How do you feel towards your image?
c)     How can the answers to a) and b) help inform strategies you can develop to self hold?
d)     How do you feel now?

Please comment below on how this exercise went for you.